Anansi Hides the Moon

A painting, 'Parchment Figures: Doubles, Doppelgängers, Clones,' hanging on a wall. Sunlight moving through wind-waving branches falls through a window onto it. You can also see the shadows of the window itself. That morning I was absorbed watching the light and shadows dancing quietly over the painting and videotaped it. Then, on an evening walk I came across a light on a patio with a thick white gauzy curtain around it, and shot some footage with my iPhone video camera. Later, playing with the footage, I added the billowing curtain and its light next to the painting of doubles and shadows. Then I cut sections of a photograph of the painting out, animated them and added them to the film. Finally, pondering on what I had produced, I wrote a whimsical poem of the African trickster spider god, Anansi, and wove it in with handwritten notes.

The painting, from chalk drawing to nearly finished, can be viewed here: http://picasaweb.google.com/brenda.clews/ParchmentFiguresDoublesDoppelgangers...

Flute music, a very small section of 'Bodydrama at the Nave' by ARTSomerville: http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/53543

*Anansi Hides the Moon*

Anansi
the spider
dropped
in from
where
African
gods &
goddesses
hang out

Anansi
hid
the moon
behind a
curtain

The sun flickered

The parchment
figures, doubles,
doppelgangers
& clones
barely
noticed

The days
were
sun bright
and the city
was electric
light
at night

Sometimes
it's
like that


You can read more on this video at my blog: http://brendaclews.blogspot.com/2011/02/anansi-hides-moon.html

This videopoem was featured at "Moving Poems," "an on-going anthology of the best videopoems, filmpoems, animated poems, and other poetry videos from around the web," that is at the forefront of multimedia poetry today: http://movingpoems.com/2011/02/anansi-hides-the-moon-by-brenda-clews/

Category:

Education

Tags:

• videopoetry
• experimental
• Anansi
• painting
• environmental
• extinction
• fce
• Final Cut Express
• flute
• inspirational
• Moving Poems

[brendaclews]

@2darbit Thank you, Rachael -especially coming from an artist like you. Beautiful image you've created, the poem rising from the edges of the chalk, too! And, it did... yes.

[2darbit]

Great painting...I enjoyed reading your process and how the poem rose up from the edges of the chalk!

Rich work.